Soldiers of War
by Pups3942
Summary: (TDKS part 5)Giant metal dragons descends from the sky and set fires large enough to consume Earth. War is inevitable. With Tony as reckless as ever, Loki can't help but put his life on the line as he worries for his partner.


_**Welcome to The Desolate Kingdom Series. TDKS consist of various frostiron angst and sorrow parts (stories) that are read individually and have no relation to each other. This is the fifth part. Reviews are always welcomed.**_

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Today was a terrible day.

Tony woke up to an empty bed, yet again. Loki had promised that he wouldn't be long with his duties in Asgard, but it's the fifth morning and counting that he wasn't back home.

Then Pepper had infiltrated his home and dragged him to the office. Seriously, the reason for making her CEO was so that she could manage the whole company instead of pestering him the whole time!

And when Tony could finally douse himself in a bottle of scotch to ease the headaches, Fury fucking called in the Avengers right before he could take a sip. And now he had giant metal dragons chasing him through the streets.

Cries rang from the battlefield. Tony hadn't remembered a battle as harsh as this since the attack of Ultron, which was technically his fault to begin with not that he'd ever admit. And this was totally not what Tony expected with the Avengers were called in to save the city of Atlanta.

Tony shot a beam at one hot on his tails in an attempt to slow it down but to no avail. These things seemed to have really thick armor. Tony didn't know whether to call them bots or creatures, but they came out of a gaping rainbow hole in the sky, so alien dragon it was.

It was a havoc in the streets below, people were trampling over each other as the dragons breathed fire onto the buildings.

 _Fucking great._

Tony swerved down to distract the dragons behind but he was thrown out of his trajectory when an explosion went off, and the screaming stopped.

He slammed violently against the floor, and was disoriented for a while. _What…?_ Tony pushed himself up, and looked towards the red-stained sky and black plumes of smoke, where the giant metal bots took charge. He watched as another bot exploded above him and rained sharps around.

Fuck, today was definitely not his day.

The screaming resumed.

Tony rebooted his system and took to the skies. His communication with the team went down almost immediately after the attack and Tony could feel them reprimanding on his recklessness. It wasn't his fault that the thing was fucking flexible, it was metal for crying out loud!

Tony dodged as a dragon lunged forward with it's jaws wide. The thing could chomp down a skyscraper in a few seconds and Tony wasn't ready to find out how much shorter it would take to completely dissipate him. His suit was beginning to malfunction as he crashed into a nearby building for the umpteenth time and more blood trickled down his face. He gritted his teeth in anger.

And Tony couldn't emphasized enough, today was a fucking bad day.

 _Enough was enough_ , Tony wasn't ready to let some creatures stomp into Earth and proclaim this land as theirs. He still had a scotch to finish!

As Tony hovered in the air where one of the creatures detonated, he realised how futile the actions of the team was to save the people. There were too many dragons and too little Avengers. And two less Asgardian allies.

Tony shot a beam into the dragon's open mouth, mainly in frustration than anything else. So there was this thing with Loki where he was never around when people need him, _when I need him._

The dragon roared and slashed his tail against Tony, tearing holes into the suit and he yelled in immense pain. Tony stayed hunched over, grasping his side where the metal dug into his body and groaned. He breathed out shakily as he clammy hands pulled tightly on the shard. Blood oozed out from the injury as the metal left his body and Tony sighed, it wasn't too deep, it wasn't something that couldn't be fixed.

"Tony!"

He wasn't given any time to react before he was slammed against the floor and dragged towards the parapet.

"What the fuck?!"

"You're welcome!" the person shouted angrily. "I stay away for a few days and you nosedive into suicide!"

Tony grunted as he pulled back his helmet. Metal shards rained from above them, the closest barely brushed past him and Tony watched in frustration as the metal embedded the ground from where he was last standing. _I hate it when he's right._ And Loki was almost always right.

"Five days." Tony snorted. "You were gone for five days!"

"Could have been more."

Tony glared at Loki. After five days, instead of whispering sweet nothings to each other, Tony chose to start a new argument. But Loki wasn't angry, instead, he smiled apologetically, which made Tony much more bitter.

"Don't give me that look." Tony grumbled. Loki's face was scratched and from under his leather suit peeked a small portion of white linen that Tony knew all too well. Tony noticed that Loki's body was stiff when he pulled both of them down for cover.

"Don't be distracted now!" Loki reprimanded.

"You're hurt."

Loki simply shook his head and Tony repeated his comment to prove a point.

"We'll talk later." Loki said.

Tony sighed and relented, though he knew that Loki would probably _not_ talk about it, be it now or any time in the future.

Tony watched as the last of the dragons in the vicinity exploded and cursed. It was odd though, why self destruct when the battle was barely over? The battlefield was littered with bodies, boulders and metal. Tony set his helmet back in and leapt off the building with Loki.

"I don't suppose that was all?"

Loki shook his head as he picked up a piece of metal. "You rejoice too early." He flicked the scrap over to Tony, who caught it in a swift movement and began to analyze the odd material. Tony groaned when his gauntlet was covered in slime from the metal. It was nothing like he had seen before, and _unsurprisingly,_ resembles too much like scales.

"What the hell are these?"

"it would seem that they are shedding their compromised shell." Loki mused as Tony made a disgusted expression and threw the metal on the ground. "They came to Asgard, and as I know of, the other realms. I came back as soon as I heard that you were deployed for battle."

 _Ah, so that was why Loki was injured._ It didn't take a genius to figure out that this was an all-out intergalactic war. The question was, where did these creatures come from? And more importantly, _under whose order?_

The floor rumbled and Tony heard Loki scream at him to run before he took off unsteadily into the skies. Through the dust cloud forming beneath him, Tony could barely see Loki as he struggled to keep the dragon's jaws from snapping shut with Loki in it. The daggers that were embedded in the monster's mouth were coated with slime and mucus and Loki's hands began to slip off slowly. Tony's heart skipped a beat when the dragon's jaws jerked closer and Loki had to bend his knees and arms to prevent from getting eaten.

Tony aimed the repulsor between the dragon's eyes and fired a beam. The creature roared and lunged forward towards him. _Please be safe, please be safe._ He didn't see Loki slip out of the jaws, but he couldn't stay to watch either, now that the creature had locked on to him.

Loud rumbling followed by dust clouds enveloped him as the buildings around him were demolished as the dragon thrashed around to reach him from beneath the rubble. Tony could only stare into nothingness as he swayed in the air from disorientation. Even from the protection of his helmet, Tony couldn't help but cough as the dryness and dust scratched at his throat.

Tony lunged forward blindly but was thrown back by a sudden appearance of a metal tail with enough force that smashed through the stone wall below. He tumbled roughly along the ground and came to a halt as his body slammed against the rubble.

He coughed violently and spat blood in his helmet.

"Tony!"

 _Ah, shit._ Tony groaned as he pried the dented helmet from his suit and flung it across the floor. There was ringing in his ears and Tony held his throbbing head to ease it. He flinched when he felt something pull his feet and he kicked in reflex. The advancement didn't stop and the grasped were tighter. Tony breath hitched as he panicked and desperately tried to kick it away.

As the ringing slowly toned down, Tony began to hear a slur of words before recognizing the call of his name. "Loki?"

"Who else could it be?"

Tony sat upright as he reached forward to pull Loki towards him. The smell of blood was so strong, Tony didn't know whether it was of his own or from the battlefield anymore.

Loki's face emerged as the dust began to settle down. Hi face was scratched and his suit was torn and ragged, revealing his fresh wounds from his recent battle in Asgard. "Don't be stubborn, now isn't the time to be reckless!"

"Yes, mom."

"Tony!"

"Yeah whatever. Maybe next time I should let the dragon eat you. Then we'll talk." Tony spat. "Come on Lo, it could be round the corner."

"I'm try- You go ahead. I'll be right behind."

There was a loud rumble followed by a roar from above and Tony knelt down to help Loki up. Loki grunted and furrowed his brows as he allowed Tony to pull him up. He brushed off Tony's comments about his weight and tried to focus and standing up.

Loki limped forward into Tony's arms and he heard the man gasp. Where Loki's left leg used to be was nothing beneath the knee. His pants were still wet and dripping and for the first time since Loki's return, Tony felt afraid.

"Lo…"

Tony could feel tremors from Loki's body in his grasp and his eyes began to water involuntarily. _Fuck, this was all my fault._

Loki gave a small smile through his gritted teeth. "Now, don't give me that look."

"We need to leave now." Tony insisted. "We need to stop that bleeding." Tony hooked Loki's arm over his shoulder and limped. "Come on Lo, we'll get you fixed up. You'll be fine." _He'll be fine._

The streets turned dark as the beast flew overhead and lunged at the duo.

"Go!" Loki hollered as he pushed Tony away from him and collapsed onto the ground.

"I'm not leaving you!"

"There's not enough time!"

The heat from the dragon's fiery breath burned their skin as the creature loomed closer and roared as it twirled it's long body from above. It was taunting them.

Tony aimed his repulsor at the dragon's open mouth and fired. The dragon easily deflected the shots and growled before exploding without warning.

The ringing in Tony's ears came back and his head throbbed when he tried to focus his gaze. Tony could taste the acid in his mouth before he turned to the side to throw up. He caught sight of Loki laying a few feet away and yelled.

A giant metal shard protruded from his chest, and very faintly, Tony saw his chest rise and fall. Pain erupted through his body as he turned himself around onto his body. There was a gaping hole in his body near his abdomen, blood gushed out with every small movement and Tony cursed at how useless he was.

"Loki."

The green orbs rolled back and he blinked slowly as he writhed in pain. Tears hit the ground in large fat droplets as Tony willed his body to move just a little more. "Fuck! Come on!" Tony cried when his body collapsed against the dust. _Just a little more._

Ashes fell from the sky as the fire consumed the life that remained around them. They had lost the war. Loki's lips trembled as he whispered his last words, "See you on the other side…"

Tony did nothing to stop the wail that escape his lips as he watched the brilliant green eyes turn dull and Loki's quivering body stilled to a limp.

Life was unfair. That much he knew.

His body convulsed with every gasp for air and breathing became too painful to bear. Tony tried to hold his breath but his lungs burned in protest. _Breathing is painful, not breathing is painful._ Loki's body laid in plain view and every moment Tony looked up, his eyes welled up in tears and his chest became tight as he started to hyperventilate.

Tony's gaze blurred as darkness started to close in and his body turned cold. For the first time that day, he smiled and he meant it. Life would be meaningless without Loki anyways. Tony closed his eyes and waited for the darkness to claim him if it meant seeing Loki again.

" _Hello, Tony. I didn't expect to see you so soon, my love."_

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 ** _A/N: Reviews are always welcomed._**


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